Fargo flood fears as homes are evacuated

RESIDENTS of south Fargo, North Dakota, evacuated their homes early yesterday as the Red River rose to its highest level in 112 years and a crack appeared in a sandbag dike.

The Red River had already reached 40.63 feet, by as of 11.15am CDT (4.15pm Irish time), exceeding the previous record of 40.1 feet set in 1897 for Fargo. The river is expected to crest today at 42 feet.

“The river is expected to behave in ways never previously observed,” said a release from the North Dakota Department of Emergency Services.

The Red River flows north from southeast North Dakota into Canada’s Lake Winnipeg, forming the border between North Dakota and Minnesota. Fargo-Moorhead (metropolitan population 343,000) is the largest city in the US side of the valley.

The Red River Valley produces a large percentage of the US spring wheat crop and more than half of the sugar beets grown in the US.

The US army corps of engineers built a contingency dike behind the one that’s leaking, said Frank Worley, spokesman for the Corps of Engineers.

Worley could not provide details of the size of the crack but said a small amount of water was leaking.

“Not a breach,” he said by phone from Fargo.

“When you have sandbag levees, there will be occasional shifting, so you’ll get some cracks that may cause some leaking.”

The army corps has also noticed a couple of other locations in Fargo where water is seeping underneath the dike.

“It’s not automatic cause for concern,” said Worley.

An area of south Moorhead, Fargo’s twin city in Minnesota, has also been evacuated due to water coming out of storm drains, Worley said.